Albert Einstein: Questions About Light

A look inside

The opening of Albert Einstein: Questions About Light, free to read.

1. 

   As a grown-up, Albert Einstein liked to tell a story about a compass he saw when he was four or five. Its needle kept swinging north. He could not see the force guiding it. That hidden force felt like a wonder to him. What else might be hidden behind the things he could see?

2. 

   Albert grew up in a Jewish family in Munich. Jewish people share traditions, history, and a religion; families practice those traditions in different ways. His younger sister, Maja, later remembered him building tall houses from playing cards. He tried to balance one level on another. Maja remembered how carefully he worked and how he kept going.

3. 

   Another puzzle waited in a little book about geometry, the math of shapes and lines. It showed how one fact about a triangle could be proved step by step. Albert was amazed that a clear chain of reasons could lead to an answer. His uncle and a medical student who often visited the family also encouraged his interest in math and science. Albert kept reading and trying harder problems.